


In Cockbill Street

by Zoya1416



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Abusive Fathers, Bullies, Gen, Physical Abuse, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-24 15:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4925170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya1416/pseuds/Zoya1416
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam Vimes' mother told him that his father was run over by a cart, but this is known to be untrue. This is a bit of what may have happened before he disappeared.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Cockbill Street

**Author's Note:**

> Guys, I am writing this because I haven't written in Discworld in awhile, to keep my hand in. I wish I could say that my ideas were full of rainbows and unicorns, but unicorns would have been stolen the minute they appeared, and rainbows wouldn't have been seen through the dust and smoke.

Sam Vimes winced as the blow he'd struck rebounded onto his knuckles, bruising them. He'd never hit anyone hard before, just a few punches with the boys. But never with the full weight of his admittedly scrawny fifteen year old body. 

“Don't ever hit her again! Get t'hell out! Don't come back!”

His father held a hand to the blood trickling down his nose and sneered through his cut lip.

“Oh, I don't think you're the one to say whether I can come back. She is.”

Sam inadvertently glanced behind him to see his mother standing at the door, covering her new black eye with her hand. She looked down quickly. He'd given away an opening, and his father followed it with a blow to the stomach, then another one to the head as Sam doubled over.

He slipped in the wet filth that was Cockbill Street, and fell to his knees. His father's big boot was in front of his eyes, and he braced for a terrible kick. Instead, he was yanked up by his collar and sent spinning back to the doorway.

“I'll be back when I want to.” Sam's father smiled and left them huddled together.

“Maw, you're not going to let him in again? Are you? ARE YOU?” He winced out his questions, feeling the belly blow.

She hesitated. “He is your father, you know. And he brings money, sometimes.”

He reeled back into the house and fell on his thin mattress. There had to be a better way to stop bullies. The Roaring Lads? As weak and poorly fed as himself. The Watch? Bunch of criminals. 

There had to be a way to help the poor and weak. Falling asleep he thought, maybe if he joined the Watch, he could learn how to change things.


End file.
